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Taylor City Attorney Wars IV: The Revenge!*

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to your city council meeting…

When we last left the story, the Taylor City Council had overridden Mayor Jeffery Lamarand’s veto of its early vote to appoint James Tamm of O’Connor, DeGrazia, Tamm and O’Connor, P.C. as its City Attorney (at least for the time being).

[Mr. Tamm’s appointment comes with an hourly fee of $185 an hour, which, if my math is correct, is $35 an hour more than the former city attorney was charging and $95 an hour more than the mayor’s choice to replace him. All of this started with the mayor’s plan to save the city money by appointing a city attorney at a lower rate. I’d say that measure has failed. Astonishing.]

Of course, the final vote took place over the dead body obstruction of city council president, Cheryl Burke, who repeatedly refused to allow the vote over the course of one and a half meetings and one special meeting. To quote Gerald Ford, our national nightmare was over.

But like Rasputin, the story won’t die.

Today, the city council filed a motion in Wayne County asking Judge Virgil Clark Smith to order Lamarand and Burke to stop breaking the city charter and obstructing votes. The motion details all of the sordid details alleged charter breaches, from Lamarand firing the council’s “confidential” secretary without notice or discussion with the council just four days after taking office, blocking the secretary from entering her office when she was rehired, and of course, the much documented city attorney fiasco.

The motion specifically asks that the judge order, among other things, that Burke allow votes to properly proposed resolutions, and Lamarand cease and desist from “usurping” the council’s power.

And here I thought I was going to have to find something new to write about.

* When ranking the stupidest sequels of all time, as much as one may want to focus on Caddyshack II, at least consider Jaws 4: The Revenge should not be overlooked. You think you’ve seen movies based on stupid logic? Try this: After another shark attack in Amity, the Brody family (sans the late, great Roy Schneider, who knew better than to get involved) from the first two movies packs up and moves down to the Bahamas, fearing the shark wanted revenge for killing the sharks in the first two movies. What happens? The shark follows them down to the Bahamas, chaos ensues, brain cells go unused, shark dies.